From the period before the Ch'in dynasty up to the Ch'ing dynasty, the concept of li underwent a number of changes. Terms like shih-li, ming-li, hsing-li or k'ung-li were formed in order to reflect different topics discussed. Whether Buddhism, which qualitatively differed from the Chinese tradition, originally used the concept of li and how the Chinese employed this concept to understand and develop Buddhist thought can be discussed from many different angles. Among them, the present paper only deals with the concept of li in the Ch'an School and its relationship to mind. Ch'an is one practical method to cultivate dharma. The character li as used in Ch'an texts still refers to the meaning it has in the term k'ung-li which is the truth of "emptiness of self-nature due to dependent arising" which is realized through wisdom (prajna). This is the basic teaching of Buddhism, and Ch'an does not differ here. To sum it up, to do research on the concept of li in the Ch'an School and get a better grasp of its meaning, it seems one has to take a two pronged approach, the k'ung-li found in Buddhism and the special characteristics of the Ch'an School.
